Katalon Alternative

While using Katalon, new testers can use recording and keywords to build automation tests, while expert testers have an IDE to build advanced programming scripts. Though the tool has been marketed with three product variants: no code, low-code, and full code, the no-code variant is just a record and playback product. Therefore, any change in the application under test (AUT) may break the test script. You should be well-versed in programming languages and techniques for the low-code and full-code variants.

Should you still use Katalon in 2024 when intelligent and real codeless automation testing is here to help? Let’s compare Katalon to testRigor so that you can see for yourself and choose the right tool.

testRigor

testRigor’s goal is to involve manual testers and everyone on the team in the testing process and achieve greater test coverage quickly and efficiently. It allows manual testers, product managers, and software engineers to quickly build and maintain test cases using simple, plain language, be it English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, or any other natural language. Read here how testRigor is a Test Automation Tool For Manual Testers.

That is why testRigor can easily enable 20X productivity for your organization from a QA perspective. The test creation is simple and straightforward, with almost zero maintenance.

You can copy-paste your manual test cases into testRigor, which will execute these plain natural language test cases using generative AI. You can correct these test cases further, if you wish, using plain English (or your preferred language). Here is testRigor’s documentation, which provides a glimpse of its simplicity and powerful features.

Here is a video to show you how testRigor uses prompt engineering and generative AI to generate test cases from plain English or other natural languages.

Shifting to a New Testing Process through testRigor

When you are using testRigor, there is no reliance on any of the implementation details, such as CSS/XPath locators of elements. In plain English, you can easily mention an element through the text and its position on the screen/UI. This solves the major drawback imposed by code based automation testing, and therefore, testRigor tests are ultra-stable.

enter "Kindle" into "Search"
enter enter
click "Kindle Scribe"
click "Add To Cart"
check that page contains "Item Added To Cart"

As you can see in the above example, the elements are identified through the text visible on the UI. Also, the actions and assertions on these elements are in plain English (or any natural language). This is possible because testRigor uses artificial intelligence to reduce the maintenance effort typically associated with automated tests. It can automatically adjust tests based on changes in the application’s UI. This decreases the time spent in maintaining tests after each application update.

Through testRigor, you can build automated tests even before engineers build the code. This is because it supports you to perform shift left testing using Specification Driven Development (SDD). You can shift from the ‘Old Process‘ of specification, coding, QA automation, and test execution to a ‘New Process‘. Here, you can use your natural language specifications directly as tests and reach success early on.

How testRigor Simplifies Testing of Complex Scenarios

Let’s have a look at other useful features of testRigor, which help you test complex test scenarios in plain English or any other language:

• Email, Phone Call, and SMS Testing: Use simple English commands to test the email, phone calls, and SMS. These commands help validate 2FA scenarios, with OTPs and authentication codes being sent via email, phone calls, or via phone text.
• Reusable Rules (Subroutines): You can easily create functions for the test steps that you use repeatedly. You can use the Reusable Rules to create such functions and call them in test cases by simply writing their names. See the example of Reusable Rules.
• Global Variables and Data Sets: You can import data from external files or create your own global variables and data sets in testRigor to use them in data-driven testing.
• 2FA, QR Code, and Captcha Resolution: testRigor efficiently manages the 2FA, QR Code, and Captcha resolution through its simple English commands.
• Table Handling: testRigor simplifies table handling and testing with its easy natural language commands. You don’t need to worry about the DOM anymore. Read: How to work with tables using testRigor?
• File Upload/ Download Testing: Execute the test steps involving file download or file upload without the requirement of any third-party software. You can also validate the contents of the files using testRigor’s simple commands.
• Database Testing: Execute database queries and validate the results fetched.
• Parallel Testing and CI/CD: When the testing timelines are so strict in DevOps, Agile, and faster delivery cycles, you can only rely on testRigor for parallel testing, AI, and automation testing to keep the CI/CD pipelines running smoothly.
• In-built Waits: testRigor is an intelligent tool that automatically waits for the UI element to appear on the screen before any action. However, if there are some situations wherein the wait time is explicitly needed, like for checking emails or waiting for file downloads, you can add a testRigor’s wait condition.
• Test Regulatory Compliance: testRigor is SOC2 and HIPAA compliant and supports FDA 21 CFR Part 11 reporting. testRigor understands your compliance requirements and helps you test them with its powerful features.
• Accessibility and Exploratory Testing: You can efficiently perform accessibility testing through testRigor. Read here how to build an ADA-compliant app. This intelligent tool helps you run exploratory testing with its AI-powered features, read how to perform exploratory testing with testRigor.

testRigor enables you to test web, mobile (hybrid, native), API, and desktop apps with minimum effort, cost, and maintenance. Its AI-powered capabilities let everyone on your team create and execute plain English test cases and achieve excellent test coverage.

Katalon vs. testRigor

In Katalon, automation QA engineers/SDETs create programming test scripts in full code mode, which is a time-consuming task and requires experts. Although low-code and no code mode simplifies the test creation process somewhat, maintaining tests can still be challenging, especially as applications grow and evolve. Test maintenance can be particularly demanding if the tests are script-based. While Katalon can handle both web and mobile testing, running extensive test suites, especially in large projects, can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.

In testRigor, on the other hand, tests are created in plain English with the mindset of an end-user. Everyone on the team, including manual QA testers and even product managers, are able to contribute. We’re talking about both creating and updating tests. You don’t need to focus on the technical implications anymore; instead, you can focus on the tests themselves, which leads to better visibility within the team and more efficient tests. Read How to do End-to-end Testing with testRigor.

Example: Katalon Test Case

Here is a simple login test in Katalon. For full code version of test case, it requires all the imports, drivers, properties, and dependencies in place before you run the actual test case. Also, it depends on fragile XPath locators. Any change in the element’s placement will cause the test script to become invalid. Quite evidently, you require programming expertise to write the full code test case.

Even if you use the no code Katalon version (web recorder), the test case is not straightforward and contains multiple steps just for login functionality. Here is an example:

Example: testRigor Test Case

login
check if page contains "Welcome Peter"

Here, in the second command, we are asserting that the login is successful and ‘Welcome Peter’ message is displayed on UI.

Say goodbye to object repositories and complex locators of Katalon. If you can read and write natural languages, you can perform automation testing with testRigor!

See this step-by-step guide to simulate user login action using testRigor.